Axis History Forum

This is an apolitical forum for discussions on the Axis nations and related topics hosted by the Axis History Factbook in cooperation with Christian Ankerstjerne’s Panzerworld and Christoph Awender's WW2 day by day.
Founded in 1999.

In keeping with the successful series of “recipients of…” discussions, I thought I’d post the known members of the Johanniter Order (Johanniterorden) who became generals and admirals in the Reichsheer and the Third Reich-era Wehrmacht. As the neck badge of this order bears a frustrating resemblance to the Prussian Pour le Mérite Order, hopefully, this provisional roster will aid fellow researchers in ruling out that decoration when analyzing photographs.

Although not a military decoration, but a badge of membership within the Christian Johanniter Order, it could be worn in military uniform. However, membership in the order and the wearing of its badges was progressively suppressed under the Third Reich.

Members of the Johanniter Order were, for our purposes, divided into two classes: Knight of Honor (Ehrenritter) and Knight of Justice (Rechtsritter). Line drawings of the badges of the two classes are shown below. All members wore the white Maltese cross of the order on the lower left breast. In most cases, the breast badge was made of cloth, but I’ve seen a few examples of metal pin-back crosses.

Please refer to this link for a superb history of the Johanniter Order and its fate under the Third Reich:

This roster was primarily derived from the Rangliste des Deutschen Reichsheeres (1 May 1926) and the Rangliste der Deutschen Reichsmarine (5 January 1928) and cross indexed with Biblio Verlag’s excellent Generale/Admirale series and Wolf Keilig’s Die Generale des Heeres. A small number of members were also derived from photographic evidence. Whenever positive confirmation could not be made (primarily army officers in the Kn-Z range, of course!), the names were not included; however, I did include three members at the bottom that could be identified with assistance. There are clearly many members missing from this roster. Any and or/all corrections and additions are most welcome!

Regards,
Shawn

NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, the members listed were Knights of Honor. It is quite possible that several were elevated to Knight of Justice at a date later than the publication of the Rangliste cited above.

Known members of the Johanniter Order who attained general/admiral rank in the Reichsheer and the Third Reich-era Wehrmacht:

In the 1 May 1926 edition of the Rangliste des Deutschen Reichsheeres, there are four officers named Freiherr von Schleinitz, three of which were members of the Johanniter Order. Per Keilig, there were three general officers named Freiherr von Schleinitz, only one of which can be positively identified: Generalmajor Wolf-Dietrich Freiherr von Schleinitz. The four officers are:

Glad you will find the roster useful! Number 23...General der Artillerie Friedrich von Boetticher? He's good, here are his known decorations from the 1926 and 1930 Rangliste with my own additions from other sources. Quite a chestfull !

Another confirmed member of the Johanniter Order from the 1926 Army Rangliste: General der Infanterie Walther von Unruh (born: 30.12.1877). He was a Knight of Honor as of that date as well as a recipient of the Prussian Pour le Mérite Order.